At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.

Your Likes make Audible better!

Audible Editor Reviews

This fine, new, direct-to-English translation of Solaris allows listeners a new opportunity to marvel at the way Stanisław Lem managed to pack so much into such a compact story. As well as being a gripping sci-fi mystery, his novel stands as a profound meditation on the limitations of knowledge and the impossibility of love, of truly knowing another: how a vast, cold galaxy can exist between two people. In how many relationships does the other turn out to be a projected hologram? At the book's heart is the dark and mysterious planet of Solaris: working out what it means is half the fun of the book. One thing is clear: the possibility it offers of alien contact represents "the hope for redemption", a Schopenhauerian longing to be rid of the endless cycle of want, need, and loss. In one passage, the main character notes with a touch of envy that, "automats that do not share mankind's original sin, and are so innocent that they carry out any command, to the point of destroying themselves". The motivating forces that have traditionally sustained mankind - love, relationships, belonging - are exposed as so much space debris. In a book that contains one of the most tragic love stories in modern literature, the idea of a love more powerful than death is "a lie, not ridiculous but futile".

Alessandro Juliani is a veteran of television's Battlestar Galactica, though here it's a young, pre-parody William Shatner-as-Captain Kirk that his performance sometimes evokes: the same cool, clipped delivery and occasional eccentric choice of emphasis. If he occasionally under-serves the book's dread-filled poetry, his character studies clearly carry the wounds of their earlier lives: at first, his Kris is an opaque tough guy, coolly removed from the unfolding, terrible events, until he touchingly gives way in the end to an overwhelming sense of loss. His performance as Snout is a mini-masterpiece in feral intensity, an intelligence crushed by the immense weight of limbo. As Harey, caught in "apathetic, mindless suspension", he manages to make his voice unfocussed and passive, as if distilling the bottomless sadness of her self-awareness of her own unreality. It's also a strong tribute to his performance that he can carry the pages and pages of philosophising, argumentative theology, and semi-parodic scientific reports without coming across as didactic. What could easily drag the story to a standstill is, in this recording, compellingly conveyed as an essential part of Lem's heartfelt investigation into the painful limitations of human knowledge.  Dafydd Phillips

Publisher's Summary

At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.

In Solaris, Kris Kelvin arrives on an orbiting research station to study the remarkable ocean that covers the planet’s surface. But his fellow scientists appear to be losing their grip on reality, plagued by physical manifestations of their repressed memories. When Kelvin’s long-dead wife suddenly reappears, he is forced to confront the pain of his past - while living a future that never was. Can Kelvin unlock the mystery of Solaris? Does he even want to?

What the Critics Say

"Few are [Lem's] peers in poetic expression, in word play, and in imaginative and sophisticated sympathy." (Kurt Vonnegut)

"[Lem was] a giant of mid-20th-century science fiction, in a league with Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick." (The New York Times) "Juliani transmits Kelvin’s awe at Solaris’s red and blue dawns and makes his confusion palpable when he awakens one morning to find his long-dead wife seated across the room. Juliani’s performance is top-notch." (AudioFile)

I tend to read reviews before I buy a book if it's something I'm not sure about. I've been wanting to read Solaris for ages, so I didn't bother with reviews when this became available. If I had read the reviews, I might have skipped it. While many are positive, there are also a number of negative reviews with some pretty consistent criticisms.

In response that there are long periods of technical description that serve no purpose to the story: I can understand where that sentiment is coming from, but I think these sections are necessary and serve the story in the following ways. For one, they perpetuate the mystery of the planet. Whenever this would happen, I would try to imagine what they were describing. If you've ever stared out at the ocean in awe of the size and mystery of it, this is the type of feeling these sections evoke. It also acts as foreshadowing. The first part that describes the unique properties of Solaris also sets the stage for the paranoia and strange encounters the main character deals with when he first lands on the station. The following descriptions of strange phenomona on the planet hint at the bizarre circumstances on the station, etc. It's subtle, but for me it definitely shaped the way I thought about what was happening in the story. If it wasn't there, one might think this was a ghost story, or a hallucination.

In response to the criticism that the characters do not react realistically, or like scientists: While this is true at times, I think the reviewers are dismissing the environment that these people are in. Like I mentioned above, the characters are experiencing such bizarre events that the first thoughts one might have are that they are hallucinating or dreaming. Two characters have been living like that, the other is suddenly thrust into it. I don't think it's fair to criticize their reactions as being unrealistic when what they are experiencing is irrational.

Also, I wish I could give 6 stars to the narrator, Alessando Juliani. He gave a magnificent performance, especially with the wife, Harey. I'm always nervous when male narrators attempt female voices, but this was done masterfully.

This story is about humans trying to interact with something that is so utterly alien that we can't even understand how it exists. It's about relationships, specifically the complicated one between Kelvin and his wife, but also between humanity and Solaris. Can you even assign motives to such a being? Is it even alive? I was genuinely surprised by the finesse and emotional depth of this book. I was also frequently swept up in the majesty and fear of the living ocean as described in the book. It was a truly unique experience, and a real treat to listen to. If any of this sounds interesting to you, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

I watched the film adaptation with George Clooney a few years ago, but wasn’t overly impressed. I probably would have skipped the book, but Luke at the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast recently convinced me it was worth reading (listening to), and I’m glad I did.

Forget the movie -- the original novel has more dimensions and more subtlety. It’s a work of science fiction at its most cerebral, full of challenging questions about the nature of higher order beings, mind, consciousness, morality, and meaning.

Compared to Lem’s vision, most novels about contact with aliens are downright pedestrian. Here, the “living ocean” that covers the world called Solaris is entirely incomprehensible, despite years of study by scientists. All anyone really knows about it is that it’s beyond human understanding, and defies all human expectations of how an advanced being might behave. Is it a conscious creature? A physical process too complex to understand? Something godlike?

Lem leads us into these questions through the planet’s interactions with a scientist who travels to a research station there. Not long after arrival, he finds himself haunted by an apparition of his dead wife, who seems to have been generated from his own memories, and understands little about herself (the gender dynamics are a bit dated, but whatever). Is she human? Alien? A conscious attempt at contact by Solaris, or an unconscious projection of the scientist’s own psyche?

The plot has a sparsity that puts the primary focus on the protagonist’s inner voice. There are other characters on the station, but they spend a lot of time withdrawn into dealing with their own apparitions, and are present in the story only enough to suggest actions and add a layer of madness (and/or clarity) to Kelvin's psychological drama. In fact, we learn more about the physics of the weird structures that form out of the ocean than we do about these companions (though I found that part strangely fascinating).

I can see why this book has remained so influential -- it explores some profound questions at a depth few other science fiction writers have come close to, even fifty years later. Lem leaves his answers tantalizingly ambiguous, allowing readers to find their own subtexts. Depending on how you read it, this could be a work about the idea of contact with aliens, or it could be about contact with others, period. It could be about guilt and regret. It could be about existential loneliness, man’s search for God, or the limitations of our ability to understand the universe, or even ourselves. There are many intertwining themes.

Obviously, a novel this philosophical isn’t for everyone, but if you appreciate science fiction that gets you to ponder, it’s not a long read, and I think it’s worth your time.

The “definitive” audiobook production is excellent. The actor Alessandro Juliani, who played Lt. Gaeta in the most recent Battlestar Galactica series, has a soft-spoken but firm voice that suits the text very well.

If one could rate Lem's descriptions of the planet Solaris and its ocean as stylistic invention, I would have to give the author 5 stars. In Snuff, one of Terry Pratchett’s characters asks another who we presume is Jane Austen (personification) how she could be “a successful author if all the words in the language have already been invented and only their order could be different.” Well, that is kind of the magic of good writing isn’t it? Lem concocts words from those that are familiar but that is not his magic. It is how he strings these inventions into the strings of narrative and description that add a vision to and beauty of a story that I found hard to compare to anything that I have recently read or listened to.

I love science fiction. It is certainly in my top three favorite genres. I probably read more SF/fantasy than any other. However, I always feel the need to fall back to the classics of literature for a fix of human depth, love and relationships, three ingredients that seem to be less than fully satisfying in SF. They were not lacking in Solaris. For some readers, these might have been for them a central focus. If the book was at all character-driven, for me, it would have to have been for as much the character of the human protagonist as it was for that of the alien. And what is so incredible, we know almost nothing about this indescribable alien except for how it manifests itself in the form of the protagonist's deceased wife.

The relationship between the protagonist and his deceased wife/alien-embodiment is beautifully and tenderly rendered. The relationship is a fluid one. In the beginning it is one so adversarial our hero tries to kill her embodiment and later he is willing to die for her [sic]. Both the descriptions and narrative could be tumultuous and serene at the same time. It is this fluidity, including if not especially of that of the changes in the ocean of the planet, that continually adds interest, suspense and mystery to the story. It has been a long time since I have really cared about a character in a book. In fact, it was years ago when I almost stopped reading beyond the first book of the Game of Thrones because all the good characters kept getting killed off and it was downright depressing. How astonishing that I cared at least as much for the alien of Solaris as I did for its hero.

The story is as much a thrilling ghost story and gripping psychological drama as it is science fiction. One need not be a nerdy lover of SF to appreciate Solaris. The book is hauntingly elegant and intelligently written by any standard. It is the story of love, love lost and remorse. It is an exploration of our humanity and the failure at times to find it.

The dialogue was totally credible and, with its sense of time and place, made the story that much more believable. Lem’s descriptions totally transported me to the quiet and loneliness of the orbit above Solaris and its sentient ocean below. While its emotive range never really conjured up much in the way of wit or humor, the story plumed the depths of my soul for almost every other emotion. This is not a story fraught with gratuitous violence and excitement for the sake of what sells many books. And yet, the story is exciting from the very beginning. I did not want it to end. While one was left with more questions than answers, the ending was most satisfying. In fact, it was perfect.

This story is half a century old and still, it not only holds up well in contemporary SF, it stands up head and shoulders above much of what is written today in any fictional genre. This is a masterpiece. I could not recommend a book more highly.

I have read the original, bad translation two or three times, have seen the original movie about five times, and the "has little to do with the book or original movie" remake more times than I'd like to admit (one).

It is outstanding that a new read and translation has been done. Listened to an hour so far; love both the translation and the narrator.

A great story, well read.
This was my First Contact with Lem Stanislaw. No long slow introductions, just docking to the Station and we are in. Good writing..
The story jumps right in with a puzzle and ends with another question. It is not so much the technical toys but more the assumptions of science, human rationalism, human response to the wonder of discovery and a person's darkest fears/doubts that comes under scrutiny.It keeps this story as fresh as tomorrow. Thanks Audible and previous reviewers.

I read many of the reviews that Audible bubbles to the top and was persuaded to give this one a go. This book is called a classic and some of the other reviews dismiss certain criticisms as unwarranted. Well I am here to add my voice to the dissenters.

First the positive. There is certainly an interesting story here about mankind's first contact with a new life form on the planet Solaris. This alien is an ocean and it is so different from our notion of life that it sparks hundreds of years of debate and becomes a new branch of science. We join the story as Kris Kelvin arrives at Solaris station and begins to try to solve the riddle.

Kris meets the other scientists stationed on Solaris and it is obvious right away that something strange is going on. The interactions between the characters can be awkward at times but I can let that slide due to their questionable mental state and the fact that this book is a translation.

However, strewn throughout the book are long periods of time when Kris is searching for clues and reads scientific books and journals that contain theories about Solaris. These range from the philosophical to the scientific. While it is impressive that Stanislaw Lem was able to create so much detail within his story it doesn't make it entertaining to listen to. These boring periods can be oppressive and if you are driving while listening then you risk falling asleep at the wheel. Alessandro Juliani does the characters well enough but he can't bring life to the dead sections of the book.

Combine the long periods of boredom with an unsatisfying ending that feels incomplete and I just can't recommend this one.

I've heard of Stanislaw Lem but never read his work until now. Solaris is 50 years old but could have been written last summer. With the exception of some basic terminology, it's just as fresh as anything written by my other favorites, Robert Charles Wilson and Peter F. Hamilton. Wow! Wow! and Wow! Brainy stuff for thinking people. Shout out to Alessandro!: BSG rocked the world, my friend!-- Thanks for some all too rare great television. You read the book very well, especially Snaut. Here's hoping for more Audible gigs.

Would you try another book from Stanislaw Lem and Bill Johnston (translator) and/or Alessandro Juliani?

Juliani is excellent. His narration is the only reason I continued to listen. Sorry Stanislaw, stay in the lab.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stanislaw Lem and Bill Johnston (translator) again?

No.

Which scene was your favorite?

The last sentence.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The narration and possibily the concept of a global sized entity.

Any additional comments?

I waited and waited for the story to develop. All I heard was pontification of nonsense. The storyline could be easily condensed into one 20-30 minute short story. Instead we are exposed to endless theorms of theorems. I listen for entertainment. This was torture.

I had not read any Lem before, and had to use some Audible credits. This came up as a "classic" in SF and so I gave it a shot. Wow. What a brilliant story. I'll have to get the written version now and go through it again, it was that good.

As far as the audio book goes, the narration was quite good, but not as excellent as some of the other books I have heard through Audible. My biggest annoyance was with the narrator's attempt at a female voice. If I actually read the book, it will be hard for me to get that depiction of Harey out of my head. But otherwise this was a very entertaining listen.

I'm kinda giddy about both starting and finishing this on June 5, 2012 (Transit of Venus). I figure if I can measure how long it takes me to read this novel in English and French and Polish, I might be able to figure out the exact distance from Solaris to my Brain. Obviously, this is not science fiction meant to be read by teens, waiting for the next evolution of the Twilight series or Fablehaven or whatever teenagers read now. This is Big Mamma Science Fiction dealing with big issues using philosophy and poetry to communicate both the strangeness of mankind and the gentle waves of the Universe. Being a translation, the reader (or listener) is only able to capture an incomplete shadow of Lem's original text. However, if the shadow is any indication, the height of Solaris in Polish must have been a mimoid on a grand scale.

Sorry folks. I must be going through a 'purple patch' in terms of my fortunate choice of audio novels. I've not seen the films but no need because this novel paints a vivid and vast techo(colour) canvas. Where have I been all these years not knowing this exceptional writer? Had to listen to some excerpts 4 or more times to get the full meaning, but so much the better (value)! If there is just 1 sci-fi book - GET THIS!!!

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

John

Liverpool, United Kingdom

9/7/11

Overall

"A pleasnt surprise"

I struggled with reading this for my book club (even though I was familiar with the excellent film adaptation from a few years ago). So despite already owning an earlier edition as a book, I wanted to see if it worked any better on the new audible version. It does. It is still a flawed and dated book, but the new translation is exremely well rendered by Alessandro Juliani and may well deserve it's claim to be the definitive edition.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Ant

St Albans, United Kingdom

8/11/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Superb, thought provoking"

I have often wondered at science fiction worlds in which all the alien species have differences but manage to easily communicate and find meaningful common ground and language. This is one of those truly great science fiction novels who's purpose is to ask real, interesting questions about alien life. From the first step of determining if the alien is living, through to determining it's sentience to attempting contact, the book poses thought provoking questions while simultaneously maintaining a quite gripping plot.The narration is perfectly suited to the tale and drives the story forward with excellent characterisation.A sci - fi classic.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

karl

Seoul, Korea, South

12/24/12

Overall

"stunning book and great performance"

I was curious about the book after seeing Tarkovsky's adaptation and reading about Stanislav Lem. I thought I might give it a try even though I was not a big fan of science fiction at the time. This book has certainly changed my view of the genre. It is beautiful and strange, the performance really brings it alive and I found myself taking detours on my walk home from work to finish whole chapters.I look forward to enjoying it again later and hopefully other works of Stanislav Lem as well.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Paul

Reading, United Kingdom

9/17/11

Overall

"Gripping plot, excellent narration, mind blowing"

I was amazed how hooked I was by the plot considering this is set in a small space with a few characters. Several times I had to stop and reflect on the chapter I just listened to in order to fully appreciate what was written there. If you want to have your notions of love, consciousness and reality picked up and shook, then get this book. All with a fantastic atmosphere and suspense that keeps you thinking and guessing in the background. Plus a good dollop of science.

Alessandro Juliani does a sterling job of narration, pace and character interpretation. Well recommended to all sci-fi fans and anyone that loves a good think!

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Chris

Twickenham, United Kingdom

7/21/11

Overall

"ok but is a bit self indulgent"

I know this is an icon, but I found it a bit too self indulgent with some of the histories of made up theories. The end was a so what! I doesn't so much finish as fade away.

5 of 10 people found this review helpful

Daniel

5/30/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Dull"

Would you try another book written by Stanislaw Lem and Bill Johnston (translator) or narrated by Alessandro Juliani?

The author probably no, the narrator yes.

Has Solaris put you off other books in this genre?

No

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Probably the beginning hour or two. For me it all went down hill from there.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I found it ok but not exceptional,

Any additional comments?

I went in with high hopes but ultimately found it dull and slow. I found myself drifting off for whole chapters. i listened to the end hoping it would get better, it diddnt.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

UK

3/28/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Philosophical SF"

A pessimistic view of communication with an alien intelligence. Sombre, serious, and weighty. Excellent narrator.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

spencerhudson

1/27/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Glad to of read the book - more detail than film"

More detail than film and more haunting. Well recommended as a better alternative to the film. It's less "commercial" and far more interesting.

But it ends and leaves more questions ... But isn't that just what Solaris is ... A mystery of incomprehensible size and reasoning

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Rizwan

1/14/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great"

Excellent audiobook. True science fiction with a depth most can only aspire to. The only thing that I have no

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.